alright, today when i was coming home from a girl's house, the low coolant light came on. i figured no big deal, ill add some when i get home. i noticed that the power steering was acting funny, it does work, but stops working at the further portions of full left and full right, but sometimes it does work there. i added coolant when i got home so it was high enough to see like 3" into the coolant adding place(lol) and when i went to drive it again, after a few minutes the light came back on. now it is always on, even when i just start the car. i had to get to work so i ignored it and will need to wait til tomorrow to check if the coolant level actually went down or not. coolant temp was the same as usual. but the power steering still works sometimes and not other times, usually making me put on a constepated face when i gotta turn hard left or right

any ideas to these problems or think they could be related? also, i popped the hood on my break at work, right after i drove around for like 15min and checked to see if anything was leaking. this greenish stuff was coming down from somewhere in the middle-ish area where it's deeper in the accessory area of the engine. im guessing anti-freeze.

im going to see if my mechanic friend/neighbor can help me tomorrow. i just want to know if you guys can suggest where to look first or give me an idea of what it will cost...

Sounds like your water pump is leaking. The water pump is located directly above the accessory belt that drives your power steering. When the water pump starts failing, coolant will drip out of the weep hole at the bottom of the pump, directly onto the accessory belt. This causes the belt to slip giving you the power steering problem. Replace the water pump now before it gets a chance to soak your opti.

the light went off and the steering hasnt acted up, weird. i think maybe i spilled some fluid on the belt? it was windy when i was filling up the reservoir and some got splashed into the mid-engine area. lol.